PJB-2018-1027
AN INVENTORY OF TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE OF WILD PLANTS OF WATALA NATIONAL PARK DISTRICT BHIMBER, AZAD JAMMU AND KASHMIR
Mehwish Maqbool
Abstract
Plants being part and parcel of life of every man, have been valued for their indigenous uses since time immemorial. The research is focused on documentation of traditional knowledge of wild plants of historical area: Watala National Park (WNP) of District Bhimber, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Pakistan. The folklore and cultural information has been documented by using questionnaire methods employing structured and semi-structured interviews. A total of 79 respondents (47 male, 32 female) with age range of 25-65 or < 66 years from the rural areas were included in the survey. Ninety two (92) plant species belonging to 83 genera and 37 families were recorded and compiled in form of an inventory consisting of diseases cured, parts used, mode of application and traditional use recipe. Different ethnobotanical indices: frequency of citation (FC), relative frequencies of citation (RFC) and use value (UV) applied for quantitative analysis of collected data and its significance verification. Study depicted that FC ranged from 59 to 11, RFC was 0.75 to 0.14 and UV was in range limits of 0.82 to 0.15. Analysis showed that leaves were most frequently used with 31% value followed by whole plant (21%), root (10%), fruit & seed (8.85%), wood (7%), bark (6%), stem (5%), flowers (3%) and legume (1%). Plant herbs are mostly commonly used as powder form (25%), decoction (23.92%) and extract (19.56%). The highest prevalence was for Poaceae with 15 species. Commonly occurring taxa were as Butea monosperma, Melia azadarach, Morus spp., Acacia spp., Ficus bengalensis, Ficus carica, Sida cordifolia, Ziziphus jujuba, Boerhavia procumbens, Lolium temulentum, Pupalia lappacea, Euphorbia prostrata, Dalbergia sissoo and Justicia adhatoda. Local people using many types of local plants to cure different diseases like diabetes, dysentery, asthma, kidney infection having high value of RFC, FC and UV. The commonly treated diseases are gastric ulcer, bronchial diseases, gonorrhea, scabies, irritation, constipation and skin diseases. Due to anthropogenic pressure and climatic dynamics, plants of the area are under severe biotic pressure and there is dare and prompt need to conserve the flora of WNP, District Bhimber for future generation and its sustainable application.
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